Belong
by legendofpanties
Summary: A short story about Cana going to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.


"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Cana angrily yelled at her employer.

"we… are not… giving you… the reward for the job you completed…" the young employer said shyly scared of being yelled at by Cana again.

Cana then grabbed the young gentleman by the collar of his shirt and brought his face towards her own. The man looked terrified and if Cana had to guess the man was about twenty-five, he had short brown hair that was gelled back to look more elegant. She knew someone else who did that, but it looked much more handsome on him rather than this piece of scum.

"I'm sorry… but the destruction you cause completing the job is more money to repair than the reward itself, if anything you owe us money…" the young man dared to say.

"What did you expect, I'm a Fairy Tail mage! Destroying property is our signature!" Cana said, letting go of the mans collar. Threatening the man wasn't getting her anywhere.

"Yes… but your destruction wasn't like how others destroy things… if I may say… it was more like you were too drunk to be carful not to damage anything, you simply did not care how much destruction you were creating because you were so drunk." The young man finished saying. Cana had to give him credit for having guts; she was ready to punch the man out.

Cana then lifted up her hand at the idea and decided to do it, she may have been a little drunk. She formed her fist and hit the young man right in the nose, causing him to fall back and hit his head on the floor. This caused an audience and Cana quickly retreated back to the only home she ever had, Fairy Tail.

* * *

"Cana, master wants to see you in his office" Mira told Cana who was only into her second jug of wine.

"Okay, I'll be there in a moment" Cana replied chugging the rest of the barrel before going to see master. She knew what they were going to discuss. Cana's drinking had become problematic in the last few months or so. After finishing the jug she slowly walked up the stairs to the second floor and knocked on Master's door.

"Come in" Masters voice said from behind the door. Cana turned the knob, slowly walked into the office and sat at the chair facing Master's desk. He didn't face her at first, since he was signing documents, but when he did finally look at her his face showed disappointment.

"Cana… this is too much" Master exclaimed.

"I don't know what your talking about" Cana said giving him a smirk. She loved liquid courage.

"Your drinking is out of control, you are starting fights with your friends Macao and Wakaba, you are causing trouble on missions making a bad name for Fairy tail, and you are simply not treating yourself right… Alcohol is a poison, some people can control it, but you don't seem to be able to do so," Master went on about some more stuff but Cana simply ignored what he was saying and started thinking about where she was going to get her next drink.

"Cana, LISTEN TO ME! If you do not stop your drinking, I will be forced to kick you out of Fairy Tail" Master said raising his voice.

"Whaat! You… Fine I will stop drinking" Cana said with no intention of doing so. All she had to do was not be drunk at the guild and put more control on her drinking during her missions, it would be easy, it wasn't like she was an Alcoholic, and she just liked alcohol. She could defiantly stay dry till her next mission, not drink on that mission and show Master she didn't have a problem.

* * *

It had been a boring two days without alcohol; Cana craved it but refused to give into the obsession. While being sober… she started to see the hurt she may have been causing, but it was not because of her drinking. It was their problem with her drinking that got her into fights with others.

By the third day she was starting to have her body shake at random times of the day, Macao had also decided come over to her table and decided he wasn't going to be ignoring her anymore.

"Having the jitters huh Cana?" Macao said to her. Cana would never admit it to anyone but she was madly in love with the older man of eighteen years older than she was. He was one of the reasons she joined Fairy Tail the other was a secret. Macao had his hair gelled back, but it wasn't ugly looking the last employers. His hair didn't look much elegant, it looked but thug like, and his S chain didn't help is image either.

"I don't know what that is," Cana said, she didn't really know what the word meant but she had a guess.

"You're shaking from alcohol withdraw, isn't that right Cana" Macao said with concern. Wakaba, suddenly appearing beside Macao opened his mouth and spoke way to loudly.

"YOU STOPED DRINKING CANA? NO WAY!" Wakaba said idiotically, probably drunk himself.

"Shut up Wakaba" Cana replied smacking the older man on the head.

"oww" Wakaba said making more of a scene.

"Well, are you?" Macao asked.

"Just… not really" Cana tried to explain that she wasn't really quitting. "I've been sober for about three days though"

"Well no wonder your getting the jitters, you just quit cold turkey, that's not good Cana, you use to drink a lot, everyday even, you can't just stop like that, you will get serious withdraw symptoms" Macao told her.

"Yeah right, only Alcoholics like you and Wakaidoit get withdraw symptoms," Cana said trying to laugh it off.

"Maybe you should try AA" Wakaba said laughing to himself.

"AA?" Cana asked not knowing what the two letters together meant.

"Alcoholics Anonymous, its an abstinence program for people who want to stop drinking" Macao told her, he seemed to be serious and not laughing at it like Wakaba.

"Wait, abstinence? Like no sex?" Cana said laughing along with Wakaba.

"No… just alcohol" Macao said, never laughing.

"You should go Cana" Natsu said, suddenly joining in the conversation.

"What the hell! Is everyone ease-dropping on this conversation!" Cana yelled.

In the background Cana heard a bunch of 'yupps' and one 'nope'.

* * *

Day four was the worst so far. Cana had been throwing up everything she ate and was getting over emotional all the time. She even started apologizing to people. While sitting down at a table in the guild waiting for a job to turn up, Mira came up to her and slipped a piece of paper in front of her.

"Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in the area… 367 Freddie Street West, St. Marks church… 7:30 every night of the week" Cana read. _SERIOUSLY_? Did people actually think she was an alcoholic? How ridiculous! An alcoholic is some old fart who lost his job and lives under a bridge, there was no way SHE was an Alcoholic.

"Gihe" a familiar male's laugh caught her attention behind her. Only one person in the guild laughed that way, Gajeel.

"What do you want?" Cana hissed at him. She didn't have a grudge against him or anything, but she was in a seriously pissy mood. The man had obviously read the paper and found it as hilarious as she did.

"You should go" Gajeel told her and immediately walked away. That made Cana seriously pissed. Really pissed… angry, resentful, and irritable. She didn't like these feelings, how dare Gajeel Redfox look down on her like that!

Cana got up from the table and went to Mira.

"Get me a jug of wine!" she ordered the women impolitely. Mira looked at her disappointed and shook her head.

"Master said I'm not aloud to provide you alcohol anymore"

"That's fucking bullshit!" Cana yelled at Mira. Mira looked hurt and confused at the random outburst of anger. Not only did it shock Mira but also everyone else in the guild had turned around to see the faceoff.

"Cana" Laxus called her from above.

"WHAT?" Cana replied irritable.

"Come up here for a sec" he replied, not looking offended at Cana's rude behavior. Cana walked upstairs and sat down next to Laxus who was drinking a beer. Damn she wanted some; she could practically taste it on her lips.

"What's up, why are you spazing at Mira for?" Laxus asked, looking as concerned as Laxus could get.

"I've been 4 days sober, and my life is a living hell" Cana told him truthfully.

"Then take a drink," Laxus said handing her his beer. Cana took no time in snatching the beer from his hands and chugging it.

* * *

Cana woke up with an awful hangover. She was in her room and all her stuff was knocked over or destroyed. She tried to think back to the night before but she couldn't, the last thing she remembered was grabbing Laxus's beer and drinking it. After that it became hazing. Looking next to her bed was a glass of water, Advil and the AA flyer along with the note '_We forgive you_'. Who the hell is we?

Cana felt scared for the first time in a long while. She honesty tried not to drink for a week, but the moment it was handed to her she felt like she had no control over herself, like an mental obsession was forcing her to drink. It scared her.

Cana took a shower, cleaned her dorm up and waited in her room till it was 7:00pm and then left her dorm to walk to the meeting. It only took her ten minutes to get there and it seemed that someone was already inside the meeting room setting up. Cana walked into the meeting room feeling herself sweat.

"_Yo_" a familiar voice said.

Cana turned around to see Gajeel.

"WHAT? What… are you doing here" Cana asked dumbfounded.

"Setting up the meeting, I honestly thought your ego and pride would get in the way of you coming here," he said adding his signature laugh at the end.

"You're an alcoholic?" Cana asked waiting for Gajeel to say he was here for his bible study or anything but this.

"Yes… more of a drug addict to be honest, the program really works on anyone though" he replied. "Mind helping me set up, you can make the coffee just add one cup of the beans in and make the water go up the red line on the coffee maker" he added and walked away unstacking more chairs down and bringing the chairs to make more theater lines.

Cana made the coffee within five minutes and Gajeel finished with the chairs.

"So… what happens in AA meetings?" Cana asked him as he started to sit down.

"Depends if it's an open or closed meeting," He answered.

"Explain"

"If it's an open meeting than anyone can attend, typically those open meeting they have a speaker who shares their story about their recovery and sends hope to other addicts and alcoholics. In a closed meeting only alcoholics or those who think they might have a drinking problem may attend. Typically in closed meetings we sit around in a circle or table and share on our addiction or something that is bothering us," he explained.

"What type of meeting is this?" Cana asked feeling embarrassed for not even knowing.

"Open"

"Oh… so I don't have to tell anyone… I mean I don't have an alcohol problem, I just… need some tips on control drinking" Cana tried to explain to Gajeel. All she got in response was a laugh.

"Cana, what is an alcoholic?" Gajeel asked.

Cana was about to answer it with a hobo under a bridge but then saw a new light on Gajeel, who was just a little older than her, but qualified, as an alcoholic.

"It doesn't matter how much you drank that makes you an Alcoholic. You could still have your job, your wife/husband, two cars in the garage, and still be an alcoholic. What makes you an Alcoholic is your reaction to alcohol. For some people it starts at the first drink, and for others it takes time to develop." Gajeel explained.

Cana was expecting to feel fear… but instead found comfort in the fact she might very well be an alcoholic. It made sense to her.

Fifteen minutes later other people came into the meeting both old and young, they all greeted her, some, mostly the girls gave her a hug and welcomed her, while others just shaked her hand.

When the meeting started an older man sat at the front of the room at a desk and asked people to read the twelve steps and other readings.

Near the end of the readings before the speaker was to be presented, the man started to give out chips, medallion like coins.

"Anyone deserving of a 9 months chip… keep coming back… 30 day chip… keep coming back…" Cana swore that the man looked right at her and said "The most important chip, the one all of us had to pick up, the surrender chip. The 24-hour chip is the most important because it is the sign that you want to stop drinking just for one day. Who wished to give up the high cost of low living?" the man finished.

Cana didn't know why, but for some reason she stood up and got the chip. The old man hugged her and everyone clapped. Cana, for the first time ever had the feeling she really belonged.

* * *

**(Authors Note)**

**So pretty much this thought of Cana going to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting seemed hilarious to me, which is why this story was formed. In the end, it wasn't really funny, probably because I put myself way too much into this story.**

**Thanks for reading! :)**


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